Nation: Wilbur Mills on Taxes and Spending

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Since the U.S. Constitution prescribes that "all Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives," the key man in writing tax laws is the chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, which handles all revenue-raising legislation. He has a pervasive influence on Government spending as well, since he can insist on budget adjustments as the price of any new tax measure. For eleven years that chairman has been Arkansas' Wilbur Daigh Mills, now 59. His economic sophistication and political acumen have made his word law with his committee members and the whole House. President Nixon has called for re-examination of all U.S. tax policy, and Mills will be the congressional arbiter of any changes. Mills, who rarely gives on-the-record interviews, agreed to sit down for an examination of his current views on issues with TIME Congressional Correspondent Neil MacNeil. Mills' tour of the fiscal horizon:

TAX REFORM. To Mills, the ideal tax law is simple and brief—but the difficulty of writing equitable tax measures under political pressure makes achieving that ideal impossible. "We want to make as many reforms as we think we can pass through the Congress. People are becoming more concerned. As more people enjoy higher incomes and thus pay more taxes, they become more concerned about how they are treated in relation to other people under the law." He calls the present code "patchwork," but he foresees no basic rewrite this year. "We are only looking at some 17 or 18 specific areas which give different treatment of income from that which is normally applied." Among them: the oil-depletion allowance, tax-free interest on municipal bonds, and capital-gains rates that are lower than ordinary income tax. However, he does not intend to reconsider the provision that allows income splitting between husband and wife.

Mills continued: "When I talk about tax reform, I am trying to establish greater equity in the law, greater simplification of the law, greater neutrality in its effect upon business decisions. I am trying to make it easier to administer, and, from the taxpayer's point of view, easier to comply with." He added: "Anybody who enjoys some preferential treatment should be required to come to the Congress periodically and make his case before the public." -

THE TAX SURCHARGE. The chairman sees no escape from continuing the levy. If Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon had not agreed in January to extend the 10% income tax surcharge beyond June 30, said Mills, "President Nixon would have had, within 30 days of taking office, a very intolerable situation. We possibly could have been back even further than we were in the fall of 1967, when people began to doubt our dollar, when people began to wonder whether or not we were being good stewards of our trust. Had its extension not been recommended, in my opinion, you would have had a new burst of inflation."

SHORT-TERM TAX CHANGES. He